Press Release

Cooperation agreement and minority investment in MicroOLED to play a leading role in the fast-growing market of high-resolution OLED micro-displays

Geneva /
30 Aug 2012

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications and a leading supplier of imaging technologies, today announced a strategic agreement with MicroOLED, a Grenoble, France-based company dedicated to the development and commercialization of state-of-the-art organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), as well as a minority equity investment of approximately 6 million Euros in the company. With exceptionally high resolution and extremely low power consumption that is the most power efficient on the market, OLEDs are ideally suited to micro-displays in a wide range of portable applications, spanning from camera viewfinders, video goggles to medical and security applications.

At about half the power consumption of competitive displays, MicroOLED’s cutting-edge technology provides superior pixel density for enhanced image quality. The technology produces OLEDs with pixel densities double those of alternate displays and contrast ratios 10 to 100x better. To complement these technology advantages, ST brings its outstanding manufacturing machine, broad consumer-market expertise, and deep IP portfolio, in the form of design, development and supply services for new micro-displays, targeting a broader range of customers and applications with the next generation of the technology.

ST owns several fully integrated CMOS processes that will be used to develop a complete product roadmap. With a large portfolio of design IP, ST will contribute to better integrate micro-display functions that today are on external controllers, which add cost and complexity to the final solution. ST’s experience in designing for low-power is key to enabling applications like video goggles.

“In recognition of the substantial growth opportunities for Electronic View Finders in digital still cameras and other applications, and in line with ST’s strategy to diversify and enhance our offerings in Imaging, we sought and found in MicroOLED the high-resolution OLED micro-displays with the best performance/quality and lowest power consumption on the market,” said Eric Aussedat, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of STMicroelectronics’ Imaging, BiCMOS ASIC and Silicon Photonics Group. “Bringing ST’s deep manufacturing and technology expertise, customer relationships and IP portfolio will accelerate adoption of OLEDs and significantly expand the market.”

“Dramatically increasing the pixel density and the picture quality while cutting the power consumption in half has greatly impressed customers,” said Eric Marcellin-Dibon, CEO and cofounder of MicroOLED. “By establishing our strategic relationship with ST, and being in a position to leverage their strong manufacturing capabilities, we’ll be able to bring the technology to the next step, expand the potential market, and help consumers see the world through amazing low-power micro-displays.”

About MicroOLED MicroOLED makes highly power-efficient micro-displays with superior image quality for mobile near-to-eye viewing devices used by consumers, medical professionals, and the defense and security industry. Through its micro-displays, MicroOLED makes it easier to integrate high definition in camera viewfinders, 3D goggles, head-mounted displays, and other visual devices. The company’s exclusive high efficiency OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology license provides significant advantages in high efficiency, contrast, uniformity, and image sharpness making its micro-displays superior in quality to the full HD image in today’s flat screens. MicroOLED’s products also benefit from very low power consumption. Founded in 2007, MicroOLED is a privately held company with headquarters, R&D and a new production facility located in Grenoble, a renowned center of excellence in France for chipset and nanotechnology development.

About STMicroelectronics ST is a global leader in the semiconductor market serving customers across the spectrum of sense and power technologies and multimedia convergence applications. From energy management and savings to trust and data security, from healthcare and wellness to smart consumer devices, in the home, car and office, at work and at play, ST is found everywhere microelectronics make a positive and innovative contribution to people's life. By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented.

In 2011, the Company’s net revenues were $9.73 billion. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.